New Cloud-Based Aereo TV Service Is Expected in Polk After Copyrights Lawsuit is Cleared

Friday

Jan 11, 2013 at 11:50 PM

Cord cutting will come to Polk County TV viewers this spring, when a "disruptive," cloud-based television service called Aereo is expected to start up. Aereo announced on Tuesday that it would expand service to 22 cities, including the Tampa Bay market, as part of a $38 million expansion from the New York City metro area, the only place the service is available currently.

By KEVIN BOUFFARDTHE LEDGER

WINTER HAVEN | Cord cutting will come to Polk County TV viewers this spring, when a "disruptive," cloud-based television service called Aereo is expected to start up.

Aereo announced on Tuesday that it would expand service to 22 cities, including the Tampa Bay market, as part of a $38 million expansion from the New York City metro area, the only place the service is available currently.

The Tampa market includes western Polk County and the all or part of the other nine counties surrounding Tampa Bay, from Citrus County south to Sarasota County and inland to Hardee and Highlands counties, said Virginia Lam, an Aereo spokeswoman, on Friday.

The subscription Aereo service allows viewers to access most channels broadcast in the market on their home televisions, computers, smartphones, tablets and other mobile devices. It also comes with a cloud-based capability to record up to 40 hours of content for later viewing, similar to a digital video recorder (DVR).

Subscriptions range from $8 a month for 20 hours of recording to $12 a month, or $80 annually for 40 hours. Viewing without recording is unlimited.

"Aereo technology is the simplest way to access broadcast TV," Lam said. "I like to compare it to rabbit ears and a DVR connected to your mobile device."

The television industry has labeled Aereo "disruptive," said Eric Deggans, TV and media critic for the Tampa Bay Times.

The major networks charge it violates copyright laws because Aereo uses their programs without paying for them, as cable companies do, he said.

The cable companies don't like it because it "cuts the cord" on the bundle pricing system dominant in the industry, Deggans said. The bundles typically include TV channels bound to phone service and broadband Internet access at a single price often lower than broadband alone.

A typical cable bundle in the Tampa Bay area costs $150 per month, he said.

But Aereo allows someone access to local broadcast TV for as little as $8 a month in combination with another service such as Netflix, also at $8 a month, for movies and cable shows, Deggans said. Both also would require separate broadband service.

"I was frankly surprised that Aereo expanded to so many markets, given how disruptive their technology is," he said. "The legal issues are still uncertain because you're dealing with deep-pocket media companies."

Deggans was referring to a consortium of network broadcasters — including ABC, CBS, Fox and NBC — that sued Aereo on copyright grounds in the federal court in New York City in March, shortly after the service began there. The lower court denied the networks' injunction request in July, and they've appealed to the federal appellate court, which has not yet ruled.

But a federal district court in California on Tuesday ruled a similar service there had infringed on broadcasters' copyrights.

Aereo operates by setting up an array of antennas, each the size of a dime, in the local market, according to its website, aereo.com. Each subscriber gets one of the antennas for live viewing and a second one for recording.

Subscribers can sign into the service through a home TV video streamer, such as Apple TV or Roku; an Apple or Windows computer; or a mobile device to watch a live or a recorded show.

Tampa Bay residents interested in subscribing to Aereo can pre-register on the company's home page. They will be invited to subscribe by late spring, Lam said.

Aereo should be fully available locally by late summer, she said.

[ Kevin Bouffard can be reached at kevin.bouffard@theledger.com or at 863-401-6980. ]

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